Federal State of Austria

The Federal State of Austria (1934-1938) was a fascist republic ruled by the Fatherland's Front of Engelbert Dollfuss. A mixture of Catholic and Italian fascist ideas, the Federal State of Austria went through political crises as the Austrian Civil War with socialists broke out in 1934 while the government also fought against the far-right Austrian Nazi Party, which assassinated Dollfuss. On 12 March 1938, Nazi Germany invaded Austria, and a day later, Austria had united with Germany in the "Anschluss".

History
The Federal State of Austria's constitution was adopted on 1 May 1934 by the fascist Engelbert Dollfuss, who made the Fatherland's Front the dominant party in the country. A one-party state and fascist republic, Austria ceased to be the democratic First Austrian Republic formed after World War I. In the first year of the federal state's existence, the government faced rebellion by socialists in what became the four-day Austrian Civil War, which led to the government consolidating its power and abolishing the multi-party system.

The new government of Austria was isolated, and many of its people were supporters of a union with Nazi Germany, which had shown its strength by retaking the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia and the Rhineland and Saar from France in the 1930s. Dollfuss was assassinated in the first year of his dictatorship by the banned Austrian Nazi Party, which was allied with the German fuhrer Adolf Hitler. Kurt Schuschnigg became the new Chancellor of Austria, and he attempted to form an alliance with Benito Mussolini's Fascist Italy. However, the Italians already allied with Nazi Germany, and Austria was left helpless. In 1939, the Wehrmacht invaded Austria and annexed it to Hitler's Reich in the "Anschluss", ending its independence.